WHY SPROUT? IS IT GOOD FOR YOU? (3)

Sprouting Categories:
To make things easier we have divided SPROUTS into 4 categories. Have a look at the handy Sprouting Chart that I have cobbled together from my research and put online (print it out and put it up on the fridge to refer to).

1. Leafy Sprouts

Leafy Sprouts cover alfalfa, clover, radish, broccoli, red cabbage, onion, black mustard seed, cress, rocket, mizuna, mibuna and more. These are sprouts that are best eaten raw not cooked. They’re the most nutritious when their first green, cotyledon leaves are appearing – after about 4 to 5 days in the sprouter or jar. In general 1 tablespoon of seeds yields 7 tablespoons of sprouts.¹
If you like brassicas such as broccoli, cabbage, cauli, you'll love the sprouted version - if you don't like brassicas you're more likely to enjoy them as sprouts, if for no other reason than - they are so amazingly healthy - full of antioxidants.²
In order for the stronger tasting or peppery hot sprouts to be palatable you need to mix them with a mild sprout like clover or alfalfa. There are some nice mixes or blends of these seeds that make tasty sprout combos.

2. Bean, pea and pulse sprouts

These are essentially just root sprouts. If you were to leave them to sprout leaves they’d be too tough to eat raw. These sprouts can be eaten raw or cooked. In fact if you want to reduce the rather gaseous results of eating beans then sprout them first before you cook. As I said in our last newsletter sprouting helps break down the complex sugars responsible for that, making them easier for us to digest. Sprouts in this category include: pea, chickpea, green, and brown lentils, mung, adzuki bean, raw peanut(which is actually a legume)… All beans can be sprouted and cooked. We’ll have some nice combos available soon.
 
3. Grain & Pseudograin Sprouts

Grains are a quick sprout, taking as little as 20 minutes, and no more than 2 or 3 days to produce a finished sprout. If you let large grains like Wheat, Barley, Rye, Spelt , etc. grow for several days they produce grass (wheat grass for instance). Sprouts in this grain category can also include Buckwheat, unhulled Sesame, Millet, Amaranth. Grain sprouts are all sweet, though some are sweeter than others. Children tend to love them because of their sweetness, so they are often a child's first positive sprout experience. ³
They can be used in breads, as a cereal, in stir-frys or as a snack - or anything else you can imagine. These sprouts are generally eaten raw and you can include them in a healthy breakfast like I do. Top your sprouts with some fruit & nuts, milk or cream and a sweetener or fruit juice. 

4. Nuts and other seeds

These should really be called ‘soaks’, because you soak them, but don’t actually go as far as sprouting them. Almonds, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, sunflower seeds (which can also sprout), and whatever other whole nut you want to soak are in this grouping. These swell after a day or so and the essential nutrients within the seed begin to be activated and are more easily digested.

Remember, you don't have to be fanatical, just wise.
Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz 


Bibliography:

1. The Sproutpeople website, www.sproutpeople.org
2. www.sproutpeople.org
3. Karin Puttner, Nutrition Awareness: Ten Steps to Healthy Eating, p43

WHY SPROUT? IS IT GOOD FOR YOU? (2)

I’ve always been a “Sprouter”, on & off throughout my adult life. I’ve always known that sprouts were high in antioxidants and many vitamins and minerals, but I never really looked into it seriously. I would go through sprouting phases and I have a wonderful husband and 5 children who have gone along with my health-foody adventures over the years AND lived to tell the tale!

Now that I have my Auto Sprouter, which is great, it has encouraged me to experiment with various sprouts and I’m finding some great sprout mixes. Sprouts and Microgreens are a fabulous way to get your fresh veges – I mean “super-fresh” and “super nutrious”. I read in a study, published in the Soil & Health mag some years ago, that showed that when you harvest a vegetable the vital substances (minerals, vitamins, enzymes…) begin to break down and halve in the first hours after picking.

Most people know about “beansprouts.” I mean we buy them in the supermarket and vege shops; tufts of alfalfa, long, pale, leggy mung bean sprouts, pea stems, and the occasional broccoli or radish sprouts. However, it appears there’s a lot more to sprouting than meets the eye!

• One - If you’re going to sprout, buy seeds from a reputable supplier (like Happy & Healthy) and get organic. Don’t sprout your left over seeds from a commercial seed packet that you used to plant your vege garden last year because those seeds have most probably been treated with an anti-fungal, anti-mould chemical, preparation.
• Two – Seeds that have been heat treated (pasteurised) by the wholesaler or exporter don’t sprout very well at all. There are always a good proportion that just don’t activate. So if you have had this problem in the past, as I have, you will most probably discover that they are pasturised.
• Three - As we know sprouts have to be good for you, but did you know that some sprouts, in particular Broccoli Sprouts, have proven anti-cancer fighting agents in them? We have all come face to face with the devastating effects of cancer in either a family member, a friend, or a friend of a friend and it seems to be getting worse. Even though cancer is on the increase in our western society, we can take practical steps to minimise the risks with good nutrition and the quality of the food we eat. We can even go on the offensive by eating more Broccoli, or better yet Broccoli Sprouts (which have 40-60 times more anti-cancer agents than the mature vegetable).

We came across the following One News video, made in the nineties, that reports on the 
benefits of Broccoli and in particular, Broccoli Sprouts – enjoy.

Some Parting Tips:

1. Can you eat 3 tablespoons of raw sprouts per day? You’ll really up your antioxidant activity levels and your body’s cancer fighting ability if you do.⁴
2. Fresh is the absolute best. That’s one of the reasons home-grown sprouts are so good. No grower, no market, no vege shop between you and your sprouts!
3. Big savings for the household budget when you grow and consume your own sprouts. Much cheaper than buying them retail and better health in the family means fewer trips to the doctor (check out the all new Sprouting Chart).
4. With the savings that you will make with your own “micro-farm” harvests you can look at investing in some automated sprouting equipment, eg. the Auto Sprouter and the all “new” EasyGreen MicroFarm (with this little beauty you’ll never be out of sprouts or mico-greens) .

Our Mission is to provide you with healthy choices, through education and high quality products, to enable you to be happy and healthy.

Remember, you don't need to become a fanatic to eat well, just wise.
Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz 

WHY SPROUT? IS IT GOOD FOR YOU? (1)

How about growing a garden in your kitchen all year round? That’s what you can do if you SPROUT! You can have fresh, organic plants to eat throughout the year; they can be grown easily and in a small space and they’re highly nutritious.

What’s a Sprout? A sprout is a little treasure chest of nutrition in your kitchen. Nuts, legumes and grains can all be soaked and sprouted to unlock a treasury of previously unavailable vital substances. In its dry seed form, this vital nutrition, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, fatty acids, aromatic substances and fibre, is locked away by inhibitors, like phytic acid, which are designed to stop the seed germinating at the wrong time. This makes some of the vital substances unavailable to us because we can’t digest them in this form – ie. a dry grain or a nut or seed. These inhibitors can also cause digestive problems for some people (bloated stomach, etc).

Just a little aside for all you scientific brains out there: Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is tied up in a substance called phytic acid. Phytic acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, to make phytates, locking the absorption of these vital minerals. Whole grains also contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with digestion. Traditional societies usually soak or ferment their grains before eating them. These are processes that neutralize phytates and enzyme inhibitors and in effect, pre-digest grains so that all their nutrients are more available to us. Sprouting, overnight soaking, and old-fashioned sour leavening can accomplish this important pre-digestive process in our own kitchens. Many people who are allergic to grains will tolerate them well when they are prepared according to these procedures.¹

The benefits of sprouting and soaking to aid digestibility:

1. Sprouting helps break down complex sugars into a form that’s easier to digest. These complex sugars are responsible for the intestinal gas that’s often formed when we eat lentils or beans!
2. Sprouting in-activates phytates making vital substances much more available to us
3. Sprouting and soaking produces highly absorbable Vitamin C and increases the content of Vitamin B2 and B5 dramatically.
4. Sprouted grains and legumes are alkalizing.
5. Sprouts are high in fibre
6. Being grown in your kitchen they’re also the freshest of the fresh – and fresh is best!

Wise Tip 1: Soaked grains & nuts or sprouted grains & seeds make vitamins and minerals much more available to your body and make the whole grain/seed much easier to digest. For those of you with digestion problems this has got to be a good answer.

Wise Tip 2: Try soaking nuts overnight, almonds for example, before eating them on your breakfast, making almond milk or using them as a mid-afternoon snack.

How to Grow Your Own Sprouts for use in Salads or in Cooked Dishes
I don’t come across may people who sprout their own seeds or grow wheatgrass for the kitchen and I think it’s because they may assume it’s too hard or maybe they don’t know how to do it. I’ve been using sprouts for years and I’ve finally found an extremely easy way of sprouting and growing wheatgrass. We have a constant supply of sprouts in our kitchen now and it’s because Rodney found me the Auto Sprouter which is by far the easiest, quickest way of sprouting and soaking seeds that I’ve found. I always used to forget to rinse my sprouts and then end up wasting them because they’d get smelly (go off). I didn’t used to rinse them often enough during the day, but now with the Auto Sprouter our sprouts taste really fresh and “clean”. They’re noticeably better and its all become so easy.


 
The Simplest way to Sprout: All I do now is check and wash the seeds I’m going to sprout; place them in the Auto Sprouter and that’s it. This simple little machine automatically rinses them every hour for ten minutes (24 x 7). The seeds thrive with all the water and begin to sprout within 24 hours or less. I can used them just soaked or leave them in the Sprouter for a few days covered with the silver reflective cover that encourages germination (as seeds like to grow in the dark). I change the water in the Sprouter every evening and that’s all I have to do – except marvel at them growing every time I go into the kitchen. In this great little auto gizmo, thingy I can easily make enough sprouts for our family of 8, or as little as needed.

Other Ways of Sprouting: For ½ - 1 cup of dry seeds use one of those old, large-size preserving jars. Cut a piece of mesh to fit into the preserving lid ring of the jar or buy a purpose made lid for sprouting which has a mesh already in it.

Here’s how to sprout brown or green lentils:

1. Check your lentils for stones or bits of earth.
2. Rinse well several times and pour them into the jar.
3. Fill the jar with plenty of water and leave the seeds in the jar with the mesh lid screwed on overnight, or for about 12 hours
4. Rinse well and tip all the water out of the jar.
5. Now leave the jar resting on its side..
6. Every 3 hours or so give the lentils a good rinse with clean (filtered) water. Do this several times until the rinse water comes out clear.
7. Turn the jar upside down to empty & drain before you put it on its side again.
8. Keep going with this regular rinsing and draining until you see the seeds are sprouting. This takes about 24 – 30 hours
9. When they’ve grown as big as you want give them a final rinse and tip them into a colander to drain and dry slightly.
10. Then put them into a bowl, cover with plastic film and store in the fridge.
    • If you make too many to use in salads then cook them in stir a fry or curry.

Sprouting for 20 people or more! For larger quantities I have had 3 or more lots of sprouts going in 3 large colanders. More hassle, but a great result. However give me the Auto Sprouter any day – so easy.

Wise Tip 3: If you soak and sprout your lentils and beans before you use them in a cooked dish, that calls for pulses or beans, you’ll reduce intestinal gas (aka flatulence), plus you’ll be making vital substances more available. 

Penelope 
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz
 
Bibliography

1. Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions, New Trends Publishing, Washington DC, USA. Pg 25

REVIVE CAFE COOKBOOKS

We cannot recommend the Revive Cafe Cookbooks highly enough - it's just one of the best cookbooks we have come across - treat yourself.  And now, hot off the press, we have the Revive Cookbook 3 for even more great recipes.

We are sure it will be a big help to you, as it has been for us.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

OUR GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING PRODUCT

We are currently knocking on the door of 1000 product lines on the website and we are spoiled for choice when it comes to what else we can add. There are hundreds of more products on offer, but we are being very careful, as we work on your behalf, deciding what we put up for sale. We have worked out the following guidelines to help us:

1. Organic were possible (and if the price is right),
2. Whole foods with a minimum of processing,
3. No highly processed or broken foods containing chemically based additives, and
4. No refined sugars (raw unrefined cane sugar is just OK, especially when it's in the Trade Aid chocolate that we love - a weakness we know). 
5. Locally produced where possible 

Do you think there are any other guidelines we should consider? If so let us know.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

USING ALTERNATE FLOURS

Vary your Flours and some info for the Gluten-Free
Flours come from many sources including grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, nuts and carob, with each having their own baking properties and uses. Our bodies need a variety of nutrients, minerals and active substances so it’s beneficial to vary the “staple” that you use even if you’re not gluten-free. So try some of the other flours available. Don’t get stuck on wheat or rice as a staple.

Wise Tip: Even if you’re gluten-free (GF) eat your food as unprocessed as possible, as natural as possible and as fresh as possible.

Grind Your Own
Gluten-free diets are notoriously dependent on refined flours and foods. If you follow a GF routine I suggest you get yourself a good grain mill (or share one with another family) and buy your grains and legumes whole then mill them fresh yourself. Millet, brown rice and buckwheat are especially recommended. Nuts can be “milled” into flour using a good blender.

Generally in gluten-free breadmaking a flour, a starch and a gum are combined to replace gluten in wheat bread. Starches are Tapioca, Arrowroot, Potato, Corn, and gums are Guar gum(a vegetable gum), Xanthan gum (made from the dried cell coat of the micro-organism called Xanthomonas campestris). Xanthan can give better results, but Guar is cheaper.

Note, if using Tapioca or Arrowroot as a starch know that they are not whole flours as they’ve been highly refined and therefore are not recommended for a healthy diet. Again, always try to eat wholefoods. Other gluten-free thickening agents that you can use and are healthy choices would be Rice, Millet or Buckwheat flour for savoury dishes and Agar Agar for sweet foods. Chickpea flour and Millet flour are quite sweet and good for cakes and breads.¹

Almond flour made from blanched, ground almonds or the nut residue left after the sweet almond oil has been extracted from the almond nut. It’s gluten-free and used in cake & biscuit baking. Almond meal is similar, but made from the unblanched almonds; the brown skin is left on. Best to “mill” your own in a high speed blender and retain the oils. I have it on good authority that the following is a great (healthy) Lemon Curd Bar recipe.

Amaranth flour has minute traces of gluten and combines well with other flours to make smooth textured breads, muffins, pancakes and cookies. It is strong flavoured and moist. In breadmaking combine with starch (such as arrowroot) in a 3:1 ratio. Amaranth is an ancient Aztec food with an impressive amount of protein, fibre and minerals.

Barley flour adds a nutty, malty flavour to breads or pancakes. Barley is usually used as a whole grain or in malting, but it is also valuable as a flour because it gives breads a cake-like texture and pleasant sweetness. It can also be used as a thickener.

Brown rice flour is nuttier and richer tasting than white rice flour and also more nutritious. It is useful for making breads, cakes, muffins, or noodles. Brown rice flour is gluten-free.

Buckwheat flour is full-bodied and earthy flavoured, the traditional flour of Russian blini, French Brittany crepes, Japanese soba noodles, and of course, buckwheat pancakes. Gluten-free buckwheat isn’t really a grain, but a member of the rhubarb family. Try the following Buckwheat Galettes (Buckwheat Pancakes) recipe

Chickpea flour is gluten-free and made from dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Also known as garbanzo flour, gram flour, channa or besan, chickpea flour is a staple of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi cuisines. Great Zuchinni & Sesame-seed Fritter recipe from the Revive Cafe (or buy the great Revive Cookbook and get it from there).

Cornmeal flour, made from maize it is more finely ground than cornmeal (or polenta), is rich cream-colored, slightly sweet and gluten-free. It is not the same as cornstarch in the US or what we call wheaten cornflour in NZ, which is used as a thickener.

Millet flour, ground from whole millet, adds a nut-like, slightly sweet flavour to wheat breads. It is gluten-free and traditionally used in some African cuisines. Great in combination with corn flour & buckwheat flour.

Oat flour is made by grinding oat groats to a fine consistency. Make your own by grinding rolled oats in a food processor or blender. It has only a small amount of gluten and it’s not the same gluten as in wheat. If you’re not overly sensitive, try it.

Potato starch flour is made from peeled and steamed potatoes that have been dried and ground. It is stark white and very fine. In baking it adds a light airy texture. Used to thicken sauces, it can also be used the same way as brown rice flour. Potato flour is suitable for those on a gluten-free diet.

Rye meal flour produces a loaf with a full-bodied, bitter, slightly sour flavour. It does not contain enough gluten-forming proteins to raise loaves well by itself and the gluten it contains is delicate. Rye loaves should be kneaded gently to avoid breaking the gluten strands.

Soy (soya) flour is richer in calcium and iron than wheat flour, gluten-free and high in protein. Soy flour is ground from raw soybeans; soya flour from lightly toasted soybeans. Both add a slightly sweet, fairly strong but pleasant flavour to bread. Loaves made with soy flour brown quickly.

Spelt flour is from non-hybridized wheat with a long cultivation history. It works well as a bread flour and has an exceptional protein and fibre profile. Spelt gluten is highly water soluble so that it is easy to digest. Spelt flour may be a good wheat substitute for some people who are allergic to wheat.

Keep flours refrigerated or in the freezer to prevent spoilage.

Remember: You don’t need to be fanatical, just wise.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

PENELOPE'S WHOLEMEAL BREAD RECIPE

Makes One Loaf

This recipe turns out 1 good loaf in about 3 ½ hours. I start around 9am and it’s ready for lunch at 1:00pm (sometimes I begin it the night before, leaving the wet dough in a covered bowl, and have it out of the oven by 10:00 the next morning).

1. 400ml tepid water into a large bowl (bigger the better) 9:00am (start)
2. ¼ tsp honey – mix this into the water
3. 1 tsp Active yeast – sprinkle onto the top of the water, no need to stir
4. Leave the yeast for 10-20 minutes to bubble up a bit – go & do something else, have breakfast ...
5. 2 ¹/₃ cups wholemeal flour and 1 cup white flour - tip the flours into the yeast mix
6. ¼ cup olive oil – tip on top of flour (the oil makes a Vogel’s type moistness, more oil more Vogelish!)
7. 1 rounded tsp salt – on top of flour. Now mix altogether with good sturdy spoon. The dough should be quite moist. Some days I need to add another tablespoon of water – why I don’t know.
8. Cover the bowl loosely with a plastic supermarket bag and leave in a warm place to rise for about ½ an hour.
9. Wet your hands. Punch down and knead for only about 2-3 minutes.
10. Leave to rise again for about ½ an hour
11. Wet your hands again. Punch down again and knead for about 3-5 minutes or so. (Can do more if you feel like the exercise, it will develop the gluten better.)
12. Prepare a bread tin with baking paper.
13. Turn the tap on slow – leave the tap running. Wet your hands. Gather up the dough. Knead it and shape it into a rounded sausage shape. With a wet hand from the tap wet the top of the bread. Put it into the tin…
14. Decorate with seeds or sifted flour.
15. Preheat the oven to 180/190 ˚C.
16. Leave the dough to rise in the tin while the oven is heating- about 20mins.
17. Bake for 50-60 mins at 180/190 ˚C. Some ovens need slightly hotter temperatures & longer cooking time.
18. Take the loaf out of the tin and place on a rack to cool. Cover with a tea towel.
19. Cut when coolish - if you can wait 1:00pm (ready to eat)

Step 16

Step 19

MODERN BREAD - THE BROKEN "STAFF OF LIFE" (2)

Part Two: Looking at Wheaten Flours available in NZ
 In Part One I talked about the “Broken Staff of Life”, the loss of nutrition in bread & baking made with highly processed white flour. So many people unknowingly suffer from metabolic disorders linked to a lack of Vitamin B1 as a result of eating too high a proportion of white flour. ¹ A lack of vitamin B in the diet comes through the combination of white flour, which is low in vitamin B, and high consumption of refined sugar, which is a Vitamin B robber.²

One of the first steps towards long term good health is to encourage and enable ordinary people, like ourselves, to incorporate more whole grains in our diet. A small step but a wise one - Greatly enhance the nutritional quality of your baking by substituting a good part of the white flour in a recipe with wholemeal flour. I’m not asking you to ‘go raw’, although there is a place for that and I’ll talk about ‘raw’ in another newsletter. You don’t have to be a fanatic – just be wise.

Most flours consumed are made from wheat and are the most readily available. Wheat contains the most gluten. Gluten is a protein found in some grains that helps bread rise and keep its shape. Flours with more gluten make better breads.
White flour available in NZ.³

1. All-purpose flour is a blend of bread flour and pastry flour - for most baking needs.
2. High grade or “strong” flour. Also called Baker’s Flour is made from semi-hard wheat and has a medium to high protein content. It is used for making bread.
3. Standard or plain flour, also called soft flour, is made from soft wheat varieties and has a low protein content. It is used for making cakes and biscuits
4. Self-raising flour is made by combining flour with baking powder or a similar chemical aerating agent. How to make your own self-raising flour http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Self-Rising-Flour
5. Durum flour is ground from durum wheat, the hardest wheat grown. Semolina is refined durum flour. It is the flour commonly used for making pasta. In wholemeal pasta (LINK TO PASTA) the bran and germ have been left in the flour the giving the pasta its characteristic brown colour.
6. Gluten flour is made from hard wheat that has been treated to remove some of its starch and concentrate its protein. Gluten flour contains at least 70% pure gluten. It can be added to low-gluten flours to lighten the loaf. This is a highly refined flour and should only be used sparingly to improve bread rising capabilities.
7. Unbleached, organic white flour is highly refined. Although we don’t bleach our flour here in NZ it is sometimes labelled “unbleached”. However most of the nutrients have been removed during the refining process. It can be used for breads, pastries, cookies or cakes.

A better option; use more Wholemeal Flour (or Brown Flour or Wholewheat Flour)
i. Wholemeal Bread flour or hard wholemeal flour is ground from semi-hard wheat, and is the best for making breads and rolls.
ii. Wholemeal Pastry flour or soft wholemeal flour is milled from soft wheat, a different variety of wheat than the one used for bread baking. It has the ability to hold a lot of fat, and is ideal for pastry and cake making. Breads made with whole wheat pastry flour will not rise.

Wise Tip: Eat your food as unprocessed as possible, as natural as possible and as fresh as possible.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

MODERN BREAD - THE BROKEN "STAFF OF LIFE" (1)

Part 1: Whole-grain Wheat Flour

Have you ever wondered how the food-related diseases of our Western culture develop? I’m talking about problems or diseases like obesity, bowel cancer, diabetes, kidney stones, gout, arthritis, infections of the kidney & bladder, stiffness in the joints, digestive disorders and so on.

We must keep an eye on our health and our eating. Have you noticed that what we sow, we eventually harvest? Early signs of deteriorating health can be headaches, depression, low energy, constipation, dental decay, back pain.

Many people unknowingly suffer from metabolic disorders linked to a lack of Vitamin B1 as a result of eating a high proportion of white flour. ¹ A lack of vitamin B in the diet comes through the combination of white flour, which is low in vitamin B, and high consumption of refined sugar, which is a Vitamin B robber.²

What actually happens to wheat as it’s commercially milled and prepared for making our daily bread and why is it the broken ‘staff of life’? Let's have a look at the process used in NZ.

1. In the process of milling the grain is broken open and ground into flour. However, mainstream flour production, takes nutritious grain and refines it into nutritionally poor flour. To understand why, let’s have a look at the structure of a wheat grain.

The Bran is the husk; it contains protein, many vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre. During milling the bran is discarded and used as animal feed, or (and this is ironic) the vitamins, minerals and fibre it contains are reprocessed to be sold as supplements.
The Germ, or wheat germ, is the young plant within the seed. It contains proteins, highly unsaturated fatty acids, good sugars and is high in B vitamins. The protective layer around the germ contains many essential chemicals (amino acids) that help us digest the proteins and starch in the wheat. Our bodies can’t make these amino acids so we must have a dietary source. Whole grains are a very good source.
The Endosperm is the only part used in white flour; it contains a lot of proteins and starch.

• The majority of the nutrition is contained in the bran and the germ.
• The endosperm is the only part of the wheat grain used to make white flour. Thus, you can see that white flour is missing many vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fibre.
• The germ is removed during milling as it contains plant oils that will go rancid very quickly and so limit the shelf life of the flour.³

2. In New Zealand, thankfully, our flours are unbleached. Some organic white flours are called “unbleached” and they are, but then all white flour is unbleached in NZ. Colour of the flour depends on the strain of wheat milled.

3. Addition of synthetic vitamins to fortify the pre-mix. If you look at the labels on baked goods you’ll see that many baked goods are fortified. In NZ, unlike many other countries, the actual flour itself is only fortified with folic acid. The other ‘enrichments’ are added by the millers when the pre-mixes are put together for the various breads, cakes, biscuits, pancakes etc.

Nutritional analyses have been carried out on flour samples from New Zealand flour mills.
Approximate nutrient content (mg) per 100g of flour⁴

Nutrients	(Supermarket Retail) White flour	(Supermarket Retail) Wholemeal flour
Protein	11740	12360
Calcium	20.8	35.9
Iron	1.45	3.25
Potassium	194.8	406.7
Dietary fibre	3140	12040
Thiamin	27	45
Riboflavin	9	15
Niacin	132	220
Vitamin B6	16	45

From the New Zealand Flour Millers Association

Note: Supermarket wholemeal flour has undergone the same treatment as white flour and the millers add some “stabilised-for-the-shelf” bran and wheat germ back into the mix and call it wholemeal.⁵ It’s a little bit like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, it doesn’t work very well – once it’s broken, it’s always broken.

You can see that even supermarket wholemeal flour is much more nutritious than refined white flour. So why not ‘up’ your nutrition by using more whole grains?

1. Be adventurous, give other whole-grains a try, like; amaranth, buckwheat (called kasha in the Middle East), millet, brown rice, or wholegrain couscous.
2. Buy good quality, freshly baked wholemeal bread made with freshly milled flour (good)
3. Buy freshly milled wholegrain flour and make your own bread in a bread maker or by hand (much, much better)
4. Mill your own flour in a small home mill to make your own bread (the best)

It’s true that all vitamins, even in the best quality flour, will be partly destroyed during cooking because of the heat. Vitamin E for example, deteriorates quickly when cooked. That's why it’s important to eat some raw, unheated grains or sprouted grains to obtain all the vitamins and other phytochemicals that our bodies need.

A note about storing flour: Wheat, and in fact all grains, contain oils (like wheat germ oil for example) that go rancid very quickly. Now white flour doesn’t contain much in the way of these good oils so it can sit on supermarket shelves for several months, but a good stoneground wholemeal flour will be full of wonderful oils and you’ll need to protect these nutrients in the freezer. So for best results freeze wholemeal flour in an airtight container and use within two to three months.

A final note: Milling your own flour just before baking your bread ensures that you are getting fresh whole grain flour and maximising all the vitamins and minerals. It is also much cheaper. A kilo of wheat grain is only $2, about a third the price of “genuine” wholemeal flour. If you bake bread on a regular basis then you can pay for a flour mill in about 18 months. After that you get to keep the weekly savings, plus enjoy very nutritious home baked bread and have the delightful smell of freshly baked bread wafting through your home daily. We use our Wonder Mill all the time, producing fresh flour to make our own bread, pizza, pastry, biscuits, etc.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz


Bibliography:

1. Bruker: Gesund durch richtiges Essen, p18
2. Puttner Karin, Nutrition Awareness - Ten Steps to Healthy Eating, Karin Puttnre, 2006
3. Cranton, Elmer, MD, Modern Bread, the broken staff of life, 2005
4. New Zealand Flour Millers Association http://www.flourinfo.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7:nutritional-aspects-of-flour&catid=5:flour-&Itemid=58 15/08/12
5. Basey, Marleeta F. Flour Power: a Guide to Modern Home Grain Milling. Albany, Or.: Jermar, 2004. Print.

SUPER KNOW YOUR BEANS!

The ADZUKI BEAN is easy to digest and cooks faster than other beans. These little red beans are big on health. Packed with nutrients, they support kidney and bladder function, detoxify the body, reduce swelling and cleanse the blood. Full of fibre, Aduki beans promote regular bowel movements, are a good source of energy and help lower cholesterol. And they taste good too. Once they are cooked they give a sweet nutty flavour and offer the lowest amount of fat and the highest protein per bean than any other. Great in soups and salads. Mix with rice or quinoa.


Very versatile, soft and sweet, the BLACK TURTLE BEAN is rich in folate and potassium and particularly high in magnesium, which is linked with a reduced risk of various heart problems. The darker the bean's seed coat, the higher its level of antioxidant activity, therefore this bean is very rich in antioxidants. Black Turtle Beans can be added to salsas, scrambled eggs, made into soup, or mashed into a spread. Blend the cook beans and add to sauteed onion, cumin and coriander for a delightful refried bean mix. Serve with rice or in a wrap with fresh tomato, coriander and capsicum.

KIDNEY BEANS are particularly high in calcium and potassium. Often called the "chilli" bean they also come in white as the Cannellini Bean. There is little nutritional difference between cooked dried kidney beans and canned kidney beans, so when in a rush, grab a tin of kidney beans. A popular bean in Mexican style dishes, as well as tomato based soups such as Minestrone and chillis, stews, in pasta or mixed with other beans to make a cold bean salad.

PINTO BEANS contain the most fibre of all beans. They are an excellent source of molybdenum (which detoxifies sulphites, a common food preservative that can cause bad reactions when consumed and builds up in the body). Pintos (also known as Borlotti beans) are a very good source of folate, vitamin B1, as well as the minerials phosphorus, iron, magnesium, managanese and potassium. Popular in Mexican dishes and great mashed to make a spread, or add to soups or salads.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

THE WHAT & WHY OF WHOLEFOODS?

 
What exactly are whole foods? Think unrefined, unprocessed, unbroken – for example:

• Wholemeal flour, ground fresh when you order - rather than refined white flour
• Un-sulphured dried fruit
• Fresh nuts, fresh flours - not rancid
• Cold pressed virgin oils - not chemically refined

Remember, nutritionally speaking, refined food is dead food!

 FACT: Did you know that most oils people buy are refined by:
• First cleaning and cooking the grains or seeds into a mush at 120⁰C for a couple of hours.
• Then solvents are extracted from the mush by using Heptanes under heat (Heptane is a component of gasoline and traces of these solvents can be found in refined oils).
• Then it’s degummed to remove minerals, chlorophyll, etc. – these components are then recaptured and resold as vitamin supplements!
• At this stage the oil still has a slight yellow tinge so it’s then bleached and finally deodorised at 270⁰C.

This illustrates just one of many other examples of the refining process in processed foods. Many foods like white flour and sugar go through other complex refining processes.

You don’t have to be a fanatic to be healthy - just be wise. People are getting sick and many are dying early from a lack of knowledge!

As a nation we’re getting sicker. Evidenced by the fact that in the recent budget the government cut back in many areas, but not the health sector! They budgeted an extra $1.5 billion for health care, three times what they added to education.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

OLIVE OILS – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 

One of our customers told us about a recent Fair Go programme that had featured olive oils.  So we went and watched it online – maybe some of you saw it too. Investigation and testing was done on extra-virgin olive oils stocked in supermarkets throughout New Zealand.

The Findings: All the European Olive Oils tested showed signs of rancidity. The only olive oils that were truly free from this rancidity were the New Zealand and Australian oils.
The question was asked: Have New Zealanders not developed a taste for good olive oil - have our tastes accepted the rancidity of the European olive oils?

Is Rancid Oil Bad for You? In a word, yes... not only are rancid oils reduced in vitamins, but they can also develop potentially toxic compounds that have been linked to advanced aging, neurological disorders, heart disease and cancer.

• So, what does rancid oil taste like? Sniff it – a slight musty smell.  Taste it. It can have a buttery taste or taste slightly like crayons, putty, old peanuts, pumpkin.
• If you value your health don’t feel bad about throwing out old olive oil - feel good about it!  In fact don’t feel bad about throwing out old flour, nuts or other old, processed grains while you’re at it.

In Search of a Good Local Olive Oil. Motivated by our new found knowledge, we went down to the sunny Hawkes Bay to find a NZ olive oil that we could happily use ourselves and offer to you. We settled on the good oil from The Village Press, just outside of Hastings; NZ’s largest producer of olive oil.

They were very welcoming and we enjoyed a tour around the facility and saw their cold press in action. Their oil is top grade, cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil grown and processed in the Hawkes Bay.  Because it is local, and doesn’t have to come from the other side of the world, it’s not damaged in transit by light or heat.  The Village Press have a great variety of oils for salads, marinades, dipping breads and gentle cooking, all of which are now up on the Happy and Healthy website.

While in the Hawkes Bay among the olives, our education continued.  We learnt that:

• Olive tasting is an art and is very akin to wine tasting.
• Even as a novice if you taste a good olive oil alongside a European oil, boy what a difference – the NZ oil is alive while the other is bland and seems to be ‘dead.’
• A good, fresh extra-virgin olive oil tastes rich, has a fruity smell, a ‘bitterly’ sensation in the middle of your mouth and a ‘peppery’ bite in the back of your throat.  It feels alive in your mouth.
• ‘Good’ olive oil remains good for between 18-24 months from the date of bottling, as long as it is properly stored out of light and at an even cool temperature (for this reason, don’t buy olive oil in clear containers).

Scientists agree that extra-virgin olive oil is the healthiest fat around. Studies have shown that olive oil consumption is linked to lower rates of heart disease, cancer, and arteriosclerosis¹, as well as an increase in the functioning of the immune system.  It’s good for the skin as well.

Did You Know that Every Oil is Not the Same?  There are several grades of olive oil commonly available in NZ:

1. First cold pressed, extra virgin– top grade oil, mechanically pressed at or under a temperature of 26⁰C – this is all that The Village Press produces.
2. Virgin oil– slightly lower grade than extra virgin
3. Olive oil- oils that are a blend of refined and unrefined virgin oils. This grade of oil actually represents the bulk of the oil sold on the world market to the consumer. Blends are made in proportions to create specific styles and prices. Olive oil grades in NZ labelled as “Extra Light” would most likely be a blend dominated by refined olive oil. Other blends with more colour and flavour would contain more virgin or extra virgin olive oil.
4. Refined olive oil- The refining process usually consists of treating lower grade olive oil with sodium hydroxide to neutralize the free acidity, followed by washing, drying, odour removal, colour removal, and filtration. In the process, the oil can be heated to 220⁰C under a vacuum to remove all of the volatile components. Refined olive oil is usually odourless, tasteless, and colourless.

Final Note & Warning: If you’re looking for an oil to use for high temperature cooking (above 200⁰C) don’t use extra virgin olive oil because of its low smoke point (207⁰C), instead use un-refined coconut, avocado or grape seed oil (all available at Happy and Healthy).  Stay away from canola oil which gives off toxic fumes at even reasonably low temps.

Penelope
www.happyandhealthy.co.nz

1. Mary, Enig, More on Coronary Heart Disease: Sense and Nonsense, New England Journal of Medicine 331(9), Sept 1994